Ferguson mayor: No 'racial divide'

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles on Tuesday stood by his comments about racial tensions in his city, saying that none of the city’s residents believe there is a racial divide in the community.

During a contentious interview with MSNBC’s Tamron Hall, Knowles — who has previously downplayed racial tensions in Ferguson’s history — was asked whether he had changed his opinions after seeing outcries following the fatal shooting of unarmed African-American 18-year-old Michael Brown.

“That is the perspective of all residents in our city, absolutely,” Knowles said.

Knowles also said that the violent clashes between protesters and police officers since Brown’s death on Aug. 9 had involved a small minority of Ferguson’s black community. “There’s 22,000 residents in our community. This has affected about a half-mile strip of street in our community,” he said of the demonstrations. “The rest of the African-Americans in our community are going about their daily lives, going to our businesses, walking their dog, going to our neighborhood watch meetings.”

Though he acknowledged criticism that Ferguson’s police department is disproportionately white and said he was considering proposals to increase black applicant rates, Knowles still said Ferguson was a “model” for Missouri.

The mayor has faced criticism about potential racial issues in his police department. More than 90 percent of the Ferguson police force is white, despite blacks making up 63 percent of the city’s population. According to official Ferguson police statistics, 86 percent of all stops and 92 percent of all searches in 2013 were of black people. Blacks were also arrested nearly twice as much as whites.